


The Seduction of Derek Morgan by Spencer Reid... or Maybe Vice Versa...

by Ionaonie



Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: Fluff and Humor, M/M, Minor spoilers for Derailed, Morgan is super patient, Pre-Slash, Reid thinks too much, Set before Tabula Rasa, Set during S3, are they really spoilers now, minor spoilers for profiler profiled, tho it's been 12 years, until he's not
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-03
Updated: 2020-04-03
Packaged: 2021-02-28 22:07:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,291
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23454514
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ionaonie/pseuds/Ionaonie
Summary: Reid asks Morgan out on a date... kinda
Relationships: Derek Morgan/Spencer Reid
Comments: 10
Kudos: 473





	The Seduction of Derek Morgan by Spencer Reid... or Maybe Vice Versa...

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, so, I'm doing a rewatch of Criminal Minds because, well, CoronaVirus, and it made me think about a fic that I was sure I'd written, but when I looked on AO3, I couldn't find it. 
> 
> So I turned to Livejournal and, after much searching, I found it.
> 
> I apparently wrote it like, 12 bloody years ago. Like, wow. That's a while ago. 
> 
> It was written for the CMExchange and my prompt was "How would Reid go about seducing Morgan? Would he use his profiling skills or would it be an awkward mess?"
> 
> I've mostly just reposted it here, but I've corrected some of my grammar and changed a few words here and there, but it's essentially the same fic as before.
> 
> I had awesome betas, but I apparently forgot to name them after the exchange went off anon, so thank you to my betas, whoever you may have been (I wonder if I have emails from 12 years ago that might tell me the answer *ponders*)

Spencer leaned back in his chair, in the unusual situation of being unable to concentrate. Chewing his lip, he glanced over at the object of his distraction. For the last couple of years – or eight hundred and fifty days, seventeen hours and nine minutes and – he checked his watch – twenty seven seconds, not that he was counting or anything – he had become very skilled at forcing himself to get lost in his work on the occasions he let himself become too aware of where Morgan was or what he was doing.

Recently, though, he had been finding it increasingly difficult to ignore Morgan’s presence. He found himself finding any excuse to talk to Morgan or spend time with him. Last week he had nearly bored Morgan to tears, talking about Star Wars. Considering how long he had been talking, he was faintly surprised that Morgan had only walked away once Spencer had started talking about the inconsistencies of the Death Star time line. Thinking about it, he held back a groan of embarrassment. Spencer knew that Morgan knew he was a geek, but did he really have to go and advertise it so blatantly?

Pushing his glasses back up his nose, he refocused on Morgan’s back, frowning faintly. Surreptitiously checking that Emily wasn’t watching and that neither JJ nor Garcia was around, he glared at Morgan’s back. It really wasn’t his fault that he kept getting distracted. All anyone had to do was look at the man to understand why Spencer kept getting distracted. There were those shoulders, those arms, not to mention those tattoos. Spencer would like nothing more than to be able to sit down and study all of Morgan’s tattoos and, yes, probably ask lots of questions about them.

If Morgan had only been unattainably attractive, Spencer wouldn’t have had too much trouble appreciating the view, but ultimately be uninterested. Spencer’s problem had started about the time he had realised that Morgan wasn’t just a pretty face; you didn’t get into the BAU without hard work and a high level of intelligence. What Spencer supposed he really meant was that he’d been surprised when he’d realised that Morgan didn’t hate him; he didn’t seem to just tolerate Spencer, but that he seemed to possibly like him.

After that slight epiphany, Spencer had started allowing himself to get into situations where Morgan could tease him. For the first time he could really remember, being teased hadn’t hurt, if anything he had for the most part enjoyed it. Apart from the whistle. That hadn’t been all that funny. Then he had slowly spent more time with Morgan. He would allow Morgan to convince him to go to the gym and practice his self defence because afterwards he and Morgan would often go for dinner afterwards, and even sometimes a movie.

He hadn’t realised how he felt about Morgan until he’d been preparing to board the train in Texas to trick Dr. Bryar. Morgan arguing with Gideon about letting him on the train had made Spencer feel warm all over, while at the same time making his skin break out with goose bumps. Morgan checking that he was secure in his vest had nearly knocked his concentration to the extent that he didn’t hear the instructions given to him by Hotch and Morgan. Thankfully, though, he had had a lifetime of learning how to look unconcerned when his mind was in turmoil, so neither Hotch nor Morgan had known what was going on in his head.

Spencer watched as Morgan leaned back in his chair and stretched. From where he was sitting he could see the strip of skin it exposed as Morgan’s t-shirt rode up. Spencer rolled his eyes at himself as Morgan settled back down. It was possible he was devolving into a lovesick fourteen year old.

It sounded ridiculous, even in his head, but Spencer was fascinated by how Morgan wore his t-shirt. In front it was all tucked in, very professional, making it easy to get to his gun and phone, but in the back it was untucked, except where it settled around his cuffs. Spencer didn’t know why that interested him so, but it did.

It was the realisation that he was now obsessing over how Morgan wore his clothes that made Spencer wonder if he should do something about his feelings for Morgan.

The question now, of course, was what should he do about it?

It was the question that he kept finding his mind drifting to when they weren’t on a case or he wasn’t sufficiently distracted by work.

Most of the time, Spencer was able to accept that Morgan would never be interested in him. For starters, as far as Spencer could tell, Morgan was straight, and second of all, there was what happened with Carl. Even if he did have any interest in men, Spencer knew that the memory of Carl could be enough for him to never act on it.

Sometimes, Spencer thought he saw something in the way Morgan looked at him, the way Morgan teased him and in the way he protected Spencer. He couldn’t tell, though, if what he was reading into Morgan’s actions was wishful thinking on his part or something more. He didn’t want to do something and lose Morgan’s friendship. That was far too precious.

He could probably work it out if he profiled Morgan but, more than the team’s agreement not to profile each other, was the fact that Spencer knew how much Morgan had hated being profiled in Chicago. He hadn’t come back with the team, since he had had to talk with his family about what had happened. On his first day back in the office he had been overly casual, but the tension in his body had been there for all to see. It had seemed to Spencer as if Morgan had constructed an invisible wall around himself and it had been immediately obvious that Morgan wanted to act like it had never happened. It may have been alluded to in a case – Morgan having insight that the rest of the team didn’t – but Morgan never, ever spoke about it. He had relaxed by degrees over the following weeks, once it became obvious that the team was going to respect Morgan’s wishes and not talk to him about it.

Spencer, who couldn’t help but profile his friends sometimes – all that information in his head, sometimes it collided with things he knew about his friends – promised himself that he would never, ever purposely profile Morgan. He didn’t want to pry and he didn’t want to discover information about Morgan through his behaviour. Instead, he wanted Morgan to confide in him, tell him things that he trusted Spencer to know. If he didn’t tell Spencer something, then he didn’t want to know it.

So, profiling Morgan, trying to gauge whether he should approach him, how he should approach him, was out. This put Spencer at a huge disadvantage because he was terrible at asking people out. It never went well. He usually managed some vowel noises before having to walk away. Quickly.

He jumped when fingers snapped only mere inches from his face.

‘Hey, Reid, you in there?’

Spencer blinked as Morgan swam into focus. ‘What?’

Morgan rolled his eyes, but there was a teasing grin on his face. He stood up. ‘Come on.’

‘What..? Where..? I’ve got work to do,’ he protested.

Morgan raised an eyebrow. ‘Yeah, because you’ve been working so hard for the last thirty minutes.’

‘I was thinking.’ Just not about work.

‘And you can think while we go and get lunch,’ replied Morgan.

‘But...’

Morgan sighed and hauled him to his feet. ‘Come on, pretty boy, we’re going for lunch.’

Spencer shrugged on his coat and grabbed his bag. ‘But...’

Morgan swiped his jacket as they walked past his desk. ‘Do you want to explain to JJ and Garcia why you aren’t there?’

‘Oh.’ For some reason he had thought that it was only him and Morgan going. He tried to stuff the disappointment welling up into his throat back down into his stomach. ‘I suppose not.’ His voice sounded funny to his own ears. He hoped Morgan wouldn’t notice.

‘Because I’ll do a lot for you, kid, but covering for you with those two is not one of them. That look Garcia gets in her eyes?’ He mock shuddered. ‘Scary.’

‘What’s scary?’ asked JJ, walking up to them with Garcia.

‘Nothing.’ Morgan sounded as though he’d be caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

Garcia linked arms with Spencer, pulling him slightly in front of the others. ‘So, Morgan managed to pull you away from your very important work?’

Spencer narrowed his eyes at her, there was an edge to her voice and it was making him nervous. ‘What do you mean?’

‘I just mean that you seemed to be concentrating very hard when I saw you earlier.’

‘I...I don’t know what you mean.’ God, if Garcia knew, really knew, and wasn’t just teasing him, he had to do something before she encouraged him and he crashed and burned.

‘Sure you don’t, Reid. But, if you ever want to talk about it, my door is always open.’

\-------------

Spencer glanced around the office, and, seeing it more empty than usual for a Thursday morning, decided now would be as good a time as any to try and talk to Morgan. Well, it wasn’t so much the talking to Morgan, more what was he was going to try and talk to him about. Hotch was off at the shooting range, JJ was in her office, while Rossi and Prentiss were consulting on a case. Morgan, though, was sitting at his desk, working through a pile of paperwork.

Spencer smoothed his shirt and straightened his tie before standing up. He frowned as a stray lock of hair fell across his face and he tucked it behind his ear. He vaguely wished he’d had his hair cut, but quickly dismissed the thought as ridiculous. Morgan knew what he looked like, and was more likely to tease him for finally remembering to get his hair cut.

He took a deep breath and walked the short distance to Morgan’s desk.

‘Hi, uh, hi, Morgan.’

Morgan glanced up at him, slightly bemused. ‘Hi, Reid. You okay?’

‘I’m fine. Why?’

‘Well, I got in about thirty minutes ago and you said hi then.’

‘Oh, really? It’s only been thirty minutes?’

Morgan grinned up at him. ‘Yeah, kid, it’s only been thirty minutes.’

‘Oh.’ Spencer felt like a total idiot, but in his defence, Morgan was wearing one of those t-shirts that emphasised his shoulders and arms. All morning he’d been getting tantalising glimpses of Morgan’s tattoos. Morgan always looked good in a suit, but Spencer secretly preferred him in t-shirts, despite, or perhaps because of the distraction they afforded. Unfortunately for him, the distraction seemed to be working just a little too well.

‘Was there something you needed?’

‘No, there wasn’t. Sorry.’ As he nearly turned, Spencer remembered that there had actually been a reason for him approaching Morgan in the first place. But, as usual, when faced with attempting to do something that made him uncomfortable, he got flustered and forgot what he was supposed to be doing. ‘Well, yes, I suppose there really is... but, uh, it’s not all that important. I can-’

‘Reid, breathe.’ Morgan was smiling.

Spencer took a few calming gulps of air.

‘Now talk,’ advised Morgan. He slouched back in his chair, all his attention on Reid.

‘I...that is to say...would you like to...no, that’s probably wrong. I’m doing this all wrong.’ All wrong. What had he been thinking, asking Morgan out in the middle of the BAU? What had he been thinking asking Morgan out? Morgan would never be interested in him like that. He was interpreting friendly affection for something more because he wanted it to be something different and if Morgan found out, Spencer didn’t want to think what Morgan would say.

‘Doing what all wrong?’ asked Morgan, looking a little bewildered. ‘Reid, are you okay?’

‘I, uh...I, um... I need to...I’ll see you later. Bye.’ Unable to look at Morgan, he kept his eyes firmly down, and walked away very quickly. So quickly in fact, that he nearly walked into JJ, who was standing between him and the door. It was only JJ moving quickly out his way that saved them.

‘Reid...’ She tried to grab his arm as he walked past.

‘I, uh, I’ll talk to you later, okay?’ He just wanted to get out of the bullpen.

She nodded, a concerned frown marring her face. ‘Okay. You know where I am.’

Nodding, he turned and hurried down the corridor to Garcia’s room. This had become beyond ridiculous. If he was going to get past this, one way or another, he needed some advice. This wasn’t something he could talk to Morgan about, unlike the majority of his problems and insecurities, so that left Garcia. She was Morgan’s closest friend and the person Spencer felt most comfortable talking to about his little dilemma.

He pushed open her door and poked his head around the door. ‘Garcia?’

Garcia turned in her chair. ‘Reid, sweetie, is everything okay?’

He bit his lip. ‘I think I need that talk now.’

Garcia pulled another chair in front of her and patted it. ‘Oh, honey, come, sit down. Tell me all about it.’

\--------------

Spencer sighed as lifted his bag over his head. That had been a long and difficult case. He was just happy to be home. He collapsed onto his chair, tipped his head back and stared up at the ceiling.

‘Hey, kid, are you okay?’

Spencer lifted his head enough to be able to look at Morgan. ‘I’m fine, just tired.’

Morgan flashed him a quick, small smile. ‘Too tired for food?’

‘No, definitely not too tired for food,’ Spencer decided after a moment. His stomach was informing him that it was in definite need of sustenance.

‘Good. Grab your stuff and come on.’

‘But, uh, what about...’

‘On the jet Hotch said we can write our reports up tomorrow.’

‘But-’

Morgan crossed his arms and gave Spencer the look that told him that he was going to agree to do whatever Morgan told him to do. ‘Reid, you’re nearly asleep on your feet. We’re going to go and get food and then I’m going to drive you home. No arguments, okay?’

Spencer nodded. ‘Okay.’ He was going to have dinner with Morgan and whoever else Morgan asked to go with them, he wasn’t about to complain.

As they walked out towards Morgan’s car, Spencer got the feeling that there might not be anyone else coming with them. That was equally great and terrifying. Great, because he got to spend time with Morgan alone, and he enjoyed Morgan focusing on him and seeming to enjoy listening to him talk so much, and sometimes tease him. Terrifying because he was exhausted and with the state he was in, he might say or do something he shouldn’t and if Morgan decided he never wanted to spend time with Spencer again that would be awful.

‘Is no-one else hungry?’

‘JJ and Prentiss are going home, Garcia is already home, I’ve no idea where Rossi is, and Hotch is staying right here.’

‘What for?’

Morgan rolled his eyes. ‘He’s writing his report, of course.’

‘But he said-’

‘He said we could write ours tomorrow. The man said nothing about leaving his.’

Spencer half turned, looking back at the building, concerned about Hotch. ‘Then, shouldn’t we-’

Morgan slipped his hand under Spencer’s elbow, guiding him round to the passenger door. ‘Hotch liked the idea of you getting some sleep nearly as much as I do.’

‘I slept on the plane,’ he protested.

They had been looking for a kidnapped nine year old boy with an IQ of 180. Spencer had been unable to sleep until they had found him. It turned out that the boy had been taken by an older boy from the local high school, who had been under the impression that the boy would have been able to formulate a gambling system for him to fleece his classmates.

‘Yeah, you did, four hours, and you’re still exhausted. You eat and then you sleep.’

Spencer sighed in defeat, and Morgan grinned triumphantly at him. ‘You know, it’s nearly impossible to contradict one of you, but two? That’s impossible.’

‘It takes a good man to realise when he’s beat,’ said Morgan solemnly as he reached around Spencer and opened the door, pushing him gently inside.

‘You’re mocking me.’

‘I prefer to think of it as gently teasing,’ said Morgan, before slamming the door.

It was only ten minutes to the restaurant and Spencer looked around curiously as they entered. ‘I don’t think I’ve ever been here before.’

Morgan shrugged. ‘It’s one of my favourite places. I don’t really bring people here and it’s a bit off the beaten track, so not many people know it’s here.’

Spencer felt a burst of warmth explode in his chest at the idea of Morgan bringing him here and he was a little afraid he’d do something or say something stupid, making Morgan regret his decision. ‘I’m glad you brought me,’ he said, ‘I like it here.’

Morgan smiled over at him as they were shown to their table. ‘I thought you would.’ Before the waiter left, Morgan ordered for them.

Sitting down, Spencer racked his brains for a topic of conversation. He didn’t want to talk about work, or anything to do with work. A little worm of information made its way to the front of his head. ‘Hey, did you tell Hotch you got a new bike?’

Morgan smiled over at him and Spencer congratulated himself on getting something right.

‘Yeah, I did, but it was nearly four months ago.’

Spencer felt his eyes widen. ‘Four months? Really?’

Morgan laughed. ‘Yeah, it was that long ago.’

‘I could have sworn that it was only in the last few weeks.’

Morgan shook his head, obviously still amused.

‘So what kind of bike is it?’

‘Reid-’

‘No, really, what kind of bike? I’m interested.’ Although he’d be much more interested in seeing Morgan dressed up in all his leathers before riding it.

Morgan regarded him suspiciously for a moment. ‘If I tell you, do you promise not to tell me the latest casualty rates for motorbike accidents?’

‘I-’

‘Because – ‘Morgan pointed his fork at Spencer – ‘that’s what you did when I was telling Elle about my bike a year ago.’

‘I was just making sure you were being careful,’ protested Spencer. The idea of Morgan skidding or some complete idiot plowing into him made Spencer’s heart skip several beats. The idea of no Morgan in his life was an unimaginable scenario, so he didn’t think about it all that often if he could help it.

‘I know,’ said Morgan, taking a sip of water. ‘So, do you promise?’

Spencer nodded.

‘Well, okay then.’

‘It’s a Ducati 1198 S...’

As Morgan told him all about his bike, Spencer relaxed for the first time in five days. Here, he was only required to listen and be interested. He didn’t have to contribute anything to the conversation or come up with anything clever or insightful. Morgan seemed happy to carry the conversation and since Spencer loved the sound of Morgan’s voice, that worked pretty well for them. Their food arrived as Morgan was talking and he just kept on talking until, much to Spencer’s disappointment, he stopped.

‘Are you alright? You’ve hardly said two words. Usually you’re impossible to shut up.’

Spencer smiled at him. ‘I’m fine, really. I’m just enjoying not having to do any of the talking for once.’

‘As long as you’re sure that’s all it is.’

‘Positive. I really am just incredibly tired. I wasn’t aware that it was possible to be this tired once you’d finished university. I was always in an incredible state of exhaustion at the end of very term, but I thought that once I was working it would stop being so bad. I was wrong, so very, ver-‘ Without meaning to, Spencer suddenly yawned.

‘Come on,’ said Morgan, sounding, if Spencer was any judge, reluctant, ‘we’ve got to get you home before you end up face down in your desert.’

‘I suppose you could be right,’ he admitted grudgingly. Spencer wanted to object; he was really enjoying himself, but then he always enjoyed his time with Morgan. Unfortunately, Morgan was right, another ten minutes and Spencer was going to be fast asleep. It was probably best if that happened in Morgan’s car, and not his favourite restaurant.

‘Reid, you already need match sticks to keep your eyes open,’ said Morgan wryly. He pulled out his wallet and put his credit card on the table. Before Spencer could do much more that reach for his own wallet, Morgan waved him off. ‘It’s fine. I got this. I invited you out for dinner, so I pay.’

Spencer frowned, positive there was some hidden meaning to that sentence that he should be getting, but not finding one. Either his brain had gone so fuzzy that he was reading too much into it, or he wasn’t reading enough into it. Either way, he decided to ponder it in the morning when he would probably have better luck. ‘As long as you’re sure.’

‘I’m very sure, don’t you worry about that.’

Spencer was more or less walking on autopilot on the way back to the car. Morgan was at his side, a hand on the small of his back guiding him and it was all Spencer could do not to stop walking and lean back into the warmth of Morgan.

Morgan opened the door for him, and helped him into the car. Spencer inhaled deeply as Morgan lent across him to do up his seatbelt. It should be illegal to smell that good after a long, sleepless five days.

He opened his eyes slightly – and when had they shut? – when he heard Morgan chuckle.

‘You really need to get bed, Pretty Boy, your internal filter has finally broken.’

‘What what’s what?’

Morgan was leaning against the passenger seat. ‘You think I smell good.’

Spencer felt his face flame, regardless of how tired he was. ‘Did I really say that out loud?’

Morgan laughed and patted his cheek. ‘Afraid so. Now let’s get you home, huh?’

Spencer nodded vigorously. That was a brilliant idea. When he started sprouting off like that in front of anyone, but especially Morgan, he knew it was time to get to bed as quickly as was humanly possible. He only hoped that Morgan chalked it up to another one of Spencer’s eccentricities.

Morgan turned on the car, changed the CD, old jazz by the sound of it, and pulled out of the parking lot. Spencer dozed, not wanting to fall asleep since his place was only about twenty minutes away. Suddenly he was being gently shaken awake by Morgan, meaning he had fallen properly asleep.

‘Come on, kid, wake up, otherwise I’ll have to carry you up the stairs and who knows what you’ll neighbours will think.’

He yawned. ‘At this precise moment I don’t think I care what they think.’

Morgan chuckled. ‘I think you’d change your mind tomorrow morning.’

Once again Morgan reached across him and undid his belt. Making sure that his lips were clamped together, he stared at the way Morgan’s t-shirt was stretched across his shoulders.

‘Come on, Kid,’ said Morgan softly, ‘you really need to sleep.’ He wrapped an arm around Spencer’s waist and started walking with him towards his apartment block.

‘I’ll be fine, Morgan, you don’t have to walk me to my door.’

‘Reid, I’m not leaving you alone until I know you are safely in your apartment.’

‘Well, if you insist,’ murmured Spencer. He leaned a bit more on Morgan, really quite grateful of the support. About half way across the parking lot he rested his head on Morgan’s shoulder. ‘Neck’s stopped working,’ he mumbled as way of an explanation.

Morgan tightened his hold on Spencer, pulling him closer against Morgan’s body and snorted softly. ‘Then it’s a good thing my shoulder’s there, isn’t it?’

‘You’re always here.’ Even through his sleep haze, Spencer could see that. Morgan was always there for him, listening when Spencer needed to talk,

‘I try to be,’ Morgan whispered, so Spencer was unsure if he’d really heard it, or if his frazzled brain was making things up now. ‘Where’s your key, Reid?’

‘Bag.’ He reached into his bag and, finding them surprisingly quickly, he handed them to Morgan.

Morgan kept his arm around Spencer’s waist for the entire elevator journey. Thankfully the elevators in his building were well kept, so on the odd occasion he had to use them, he didn’t freak out too much. They finally ended up in front of Spencer’s door. Despite being so tired he could hardly keep his eyes open, Spencer was reluctant for the evening to end.

Morgan opened his door for him and as it swung open Spencer slowly stepped out of the protective circle of Morgan’s arm. ‘Thanks, Morgan.’

Morgan shrugged. ‘Are you sure you’ll be okay?’ he asked. ‘You don’t want me to come in?’

Spencer shook his head. ‘I’ll be okay from here, promise. My room’s just down the hall. I can get there without falling over.’

‘Well, as long as you’re sure...I’ll be going then.’ Spencer wasn’t a hundred percent sure, but Morgan looked nervous.

‘Uh, okay.’ Saying bye to Morgan had never been this awkward and Spencer couldn’t work out what was different this time. As Morgan walked away, Spencer reached out and grabbed Morgan’s arm. ‘Hey, Morgan, thanks for dinner. I really enjoyed it.’

Morgan smiled at him. ‘Me too. Now, get in there and get to sleep. I’ll see you tomorrow.’

It was only after he had closed his door that Spencer realised that at no time in the last few hours had he got around to asking Morgan to go out on a date with him. Quite unable to believe himself, he thumped his forehead on his door three times, before turning and dragging himself morosely to bed.

\--------------

Derek pretended to be engrossed in his work as Reid made his way over to Derek’s desk. This would be the third time in less than two weeks that Reid had attempted to ask Derek out on a date. Derek didn’t know whether to be flattered that Reid thought him desirable enough to try multiple times or to be slightly dismayed that apparently he intimidated Reid so much that he found asking him out on a date next to impossible.

This was despite the fact that in Derek’s head they’d already been on a kind of date; ‘a kind of date’ in the sense that Derek thought they’d been on a date but he knew Reid had been completely oblivious to the fact. He knew he hadn’t exactly explicitly stated that what they were doing could possibly be considered a date, but he had hoped that Reid might have got a clue at some point, especially when Derek had helped him to his apartment.

Reid leant awkwardly against Derek’s desk and Derek took a moment to smile as just how adorable Reid could be without meaning to be, before looking up, a question in his eyes.

‘Uh, hi,’ began Reid.

‘Hi to you, too,’ he replied, a small smile playing on his lips so Reid would know he was welcome.

‘Hey, uh, Morgan, I...umm, I was wondering if I could, uh, ask you something?’

‘Anything, Reid.’

Reid didn’t speak immediately but Derek waited. He knew he couldn’t rush Reid, any attempt on his part to do so would just throw Reid and would make him nervous.

‘I was wondering...well, that is hoping...well-’

Derek held his breath as he watched Reid, wondering if today was going to be the day Reid managed to ask him out.

‘Conference room, now,’ said Hotch tersely, as he walked past them. ‘We’ve got a new case.’

Derek resisted the urge to demand if had really been necessary for Hotch to have interrupted them at that precise moment. Another minute was all he was asking for. Instead, he watched as Reid caught his eye, looked away quickly and blushed. It was as cute as anything Derek had seen, but it was becoming increasingly frustrating.

‘It’s a bad one,’ said JJ, following Hotch, but looking apologetically at Morgan. Obviously she’d heard Reid talking.

‘We’ll be right there,’ said Derek, sighing as he stood up.

He didn’t know how he felt about the rest of the team getting to witness Reid’s attempts at asking him out. It wasn’t that he wanted to hide the fact that they might hypothetically be going out. He wasn’t embarrassed by the fact that he liked Reid. He’d liked Reid for a lot longer than he had been aware of Reid’s own feelings for him.

He knew trying to hide a relationship from the people he worked with was next to impossible. If he’d ever thought it was worth a try, JJ’s experience with Will had proven otherwise, even though she didn’t know it yet. The team, even Reid, who was usually so oblivious about interpersonal relationships, knew about JJ and Will and yet JJ seemed to be under the impression that she was doing a good job of hiding it. No-one had said anything, mostly because she seemed happier that they didn’t know. Derek knew it was because she feared that they would think less of her for falling in love, like they would think it would impact her work in a negative way. She was wrong, and probably knew she was wrong, but until she told them about her and Will, she wouldn’t know.

‘We just got back from a bad one,’ said Reid.

‘Yeah, we did and now we’ve got another one.’

‘I don’t know why I’m complaining,’ said Reid, more to himself that Derek, ‘it’s not like we ever get a light-hearted case.’

Watching Reid pick up his bag, Derek admitted that he didn’t want them watching in case he screwed it up and there was the very real possibility of that happening. He had this image of being very together, very aware of himself, and in a way he was. He was aware that he had issues; that Carl had affected him in ways he still didn’t fully know about. The fact that everyone knew his secrets just made it that much worse because if he did screw up then everyone would have a pretty good idea why.

‘Come on,’ said Reid, ‘we better go up. You told Hotch we’d be right there.’

As Reid walked away from him, Morgan knew that unless he took some rather decisive action, he was never going to get to go out with Reid.

\--------------

‘Hey, Reid, are you going to be here later?’

Spencer looked up to see Morgan towering over him. His gym bag was slung over his shoulder and Spencer dimly remembered something about him teaching advanced self defence to the new trainees. ‘Uh, yeah, I guess so.’ He blinked. ‘Why?’

‘No reason,’ said Morgan easily, ‘I just wanted to make sure that you’ll be here when I’m done.’

Looking up at Morgan, Spencer nodded. He hadn’t any plans for that evening and he could use the time to get some extra work done. ‘I’ll be here.’

Morgan grinned. ‘I’ll see you later then.’

Spencer watched Morgan walking out of the room, trying, desperately to keep his eyes above Morgan’s waist. Once Morgan was out of the room Spencer dropped his head onto his desk, resisting the urge to repeat the action and knock himself unconscious. How was he supposed to carry on with his work when, in the back of his mind, was the knowledge that Morgan wanted to talk to him after training?

An hour later Spencer threw his pencil onto his desk, feeling totally frustrated and completely unable to concentrate, thanks to Morgan. He kept looking up every few minutes to see if Morgan was walking back into the office. Spencer knew that Morgan would spend at least a couple of hours working with the trainees. He glanced at his watch, and, seeing that he probably had at least another forty-five minutes, he stood up, pulled his jacket on and grabbed his messenger bag.

Since he wasn’t going to get any work done, he might as well go and watch Morgan beat up a bunch of trainees. As long as he wasn’t on the receiving end, watching Morgan put each and every trainee on the mats was quite fun, especially when there was always one who was convinced that Morgan wasn’t really that good and all he needed was the right move to prove it.

Saving his work, he logged off his computer, shrugged on his jacket and picked up his bag.

Walking out of the BAU, Spencer nearly walked into Garcia. ‘Hey Reid, are you going? I thought you were hanging around to wait for Morgan?’

‘Oh, I am. I just...I thought I’d go and wait for him at the gym.’ Why wasn’t he surprised that Garcia knew that? He often wondered if she had her own set of cameras set up all over the BAU, because otherwise he couldn’t understand how she always seemed to know everything that was going on.

Garcia raised an eyebrow. ‘Really?’

‘Umm, yes.’

Garcia grinned at him, her eyes shining with undisguised glee.

‘Stop it,’ he told her, shifting uncomfortably.

‘Stop, what?’

‘Making assumptions about why I’m going down to the gym.’

‘I’m not making assumptions, my friend.’

‘Yes, you are.’

‘And what assumption is it that I am making?’

‘You know very well that you think I’m going down there to watch-’ He narrowed his eyes as her smiled widened and became, if possible, even more gleeful. ‘Oh, no you don’t. You’re going to make me say something and then use it against me.’ He had fallen for that before, and he wasn’t about to do so again anytime soon.

Flamboyantly placing her hand on her heart, Garcia said, ‘Dr. Reid, you hurt me with your accusations.’

‘No, you’re just sore because I figured you out before you could trap me,’ corrected Spencer.

Garcia laughed. ‘But, Reid, it’s not as though you haven’t already told me everything already.’ She made a shooing motion with her hands. ‘Now, be off with you. Go and watch that fine hunk of a male specimen fight and get sweaty.’

‘Garcia!’ He didn’t know how she was still able to scandalise him or make him feel all embarrassed. Perhaps, in this instance, it was because he had gone to Garcia for advice and so she knew exactly what he was thinking.

‘What? You can’t even begin to tell me that that isn’t what has been distracting you and stopping you from being able to concentrate on your work.’

‘I am neither confirming nor denying anything,’ Spencer told her, but he couldn’t stop the grin that spread across his face.

‘I knew it,’ she crowed triumphantly.

‘Fine. Yes. That’s why I’m going down to the gym. Happy now?’

‘Ecstatic. But then, I already knew that was why you were leaving early.’ She smiled smugly.

‘You know, if you keep teasing me, I’m not going to get there in time,’ complained Spencer.

‘Well then, you’d better get going, hadn’t you?’ Garcia pushed him gently in the direction of the gym and Spencer smiled gratefully at her and walked away quickly.

Spencer slipped through the door to the gym and quietly made his way to the benches. Morgan was instructing the trainees so he made sure he didn’t distract anyone.

After telling everyone to split into pairs, Morgan jogged over to him. ‘Hey, Pretty Boy, what you doing here?’ he called.

Spencer ignored the few trainees who looked over at him. He didn’t get embarrassed when Morgan called him that in front of the team, so it would be ridiculous to get embarrassed in front of some trainees he was likely never going to see again.

He shrugged. ‘Thought I’d come and wait for you here. If that’s, you know, okay?’

Morgan smiled at him. ‘Of course it okay, Reid. You don’t have to ask. Do you want to join in, or...?’

Spencer looked over to see all the trainees following Morgan’s instructions to the letter. ‘Uh, shouldn’t you be watching them to make sure they’re doing it right?’

‘Are they doing it right?’

Spencer studied them for a moment, trying to remember everything that Morgan had ever taught him. He was much better at the theory than he was at putting it into practice. ‘Well, I think so.’

‘Then I don’t need to watch them, do I?’

‘I...I guess not.’ He frowned. Sometimes Morgan’s logic confused Spencer, but he suspected that was half the point.

‘So, do you want to join in, or not?’

‘Ah, I think not. I prefer to embarrass myself in front of an audience of one, if you don’t mind.’ And generally an audience of only Morgan, who never made him feel like an idiot when he tripped over his own feet or fell on his ass before Morgan had even touched him.

‘Reid, you’re not that bad, you know. You’ve improved a lot over the last year or so.’ He could hear the pride in Morgan’s voice and ducked his head a little in embarrassment.

He nodded in the direction of the new trainees. ‘I’m still not as good as any of them though, am I?’

Morgan glanced over at the trainees. Most of them had stopped practicing and were watching Morgan talk to Spencer. Spencer really hoped he wasn’t blushing as much as it felt like he was. ‘Did I tell any of you to stop?’ Morgan demanded. As a unit, they shook their heads. ‘Then why are you all standing around?’ Immediately they all partnered up and started practicing their moves again. Morgan rolled his eyes at Reid before continuing their conversation. ‘You aren’t in the FBI to fight, Reid. You’re here to catch bad guys with that big old brain of yours. You learn this stuff so that you can surprise people who wouldn’t expect you to be able to fight back.’

‘And then what? Once they are over the surprise?’

‘By that point I’ll be there so it’ll be a moot point.’

Spencer grinned. ‘So what? You’re the knight in shining armour and I’m the damsel in distress?’

Morgan cocked his head to one side. ‘I don’t think I’d phrase it like that.’

‘No? How would you phrase it then?’

Morgan opened his mouth to speak but was interrupted when a couple of trainees called his name. Spencer found the way they said ‘Agent Morgan’ with such an air of reverence amusing.

‘I’d better go,’ he said regretfully. ‘It shouldn’t be too long now, probably about another twenty minutes or so.’

Spencer nodded. ‘Okay.’ He really didn’t mind how long Morgan took. It gave him more time to legitimately stare at Morgan’s body. He could always say he was studying, learning what he could before their next session later in the week. It was possible they both knew he was lying, or at least there was often a knowing glint in Morgan’s eye when he caught Spencer out, but he had never called Spencer on it, so he was holding onto that plausible deniability.

He sat down, resting his arms on his knees and watched while Morgan put the trainees through their paces for the next twenty minutes. Eventually he called time and Spencer counted seven sighing with relief. He could relate; Morgan never went easy on anyone. As they walked past Spencer several of them gave him a quizzical look and he tried to smile at them, but judging by the look on some of their faces, he didn’t really succeed.

‘I’ll grab a shower and then I’ll be right out, okay?’ said Morgan, appearing at his side.

Spencer looked up and nodded. ‘That’s fine. I’ll still be here.’

Morgan smiled and ruffled his hair gently. ‘Of course you will be, pretty boy.’ With that he bounded off. Spencer could never work out how Morgan still had so much energy left after already using so much.

Shaking his head, he pulled his eyes away from Morgan as the door to the changing rooms closed. He watched as the trainees traipsed out, most of them still sending curious looks his way, but he ignored them. Finally, Morgan reappeared, looking less like he’d just done a training session with thirteen trainees and more like he was about to go out on a date. It wasn’t about his clothes, because they were the same as they had been all day.

‘Are you going somewhere?’

Morgan frowned. ‘No. Why?’

Spencer wasn’t sure he could put it into adequate words. ‘You just look...nice.’

‘Well, I am going for dinner with you,’ said Morgan, throwing his bag over his shoulder.

Spencer blinked. ‘Huh?’

‘Dinner. With you. Now come on, stand up. We need to get going.’ Morgan was being so matter of fact about it that Spencer wondered if he’d somehow forgotten the conversation where he and Morgan organised such a thing. He immediately dispelled such a notion; there would be no way would forget that conversation if it ever happened.

‘Going?’ Spencer stood up slowly. ‘I thought you just wanted to talk to me about something.’

‘I’ve booked a table. We can talk there, but not about anything particular.’

‘I’m confused,’ he admitted. ‘What’s going on?’

‘We’re going on a date, Reid,’ explained Morgan, a smile playing around his lips.

‘A...a date?’ he choked out. ‘What are you talking about?’ Was Morgan really asking him out on a date? Because that was a scenario he had never contemplated – well, maybe once, one time late at night when he hadn’t been able to stop himself.

‘Because we’ll be near retirement age if I wait for you to ask me out first.’

Spencer was unable to speak for a couple of seconds. ‘You... you knew?’ He thought no-one other than Garcia and JJ had known how he felt about Morgan. Perhaps he hadn’t hidden it as well as he thought he had. After all, he had never told Garcia or JJ, they had let him know that if he’d ever wanted to talk, they were always there for him.

Morgan slung his other arm around Spencer’s shoulders. ‘Yeah, I knew. You...weren’t exactly subtle, kid.’

‘Oh.’ That... wasn’t really all that surprising. He’d never been very good at being subtle when he’d liked someone and Morgan was the first person he had tried to ask out, so he’d not really had a lot of practice.

Morgan tugged his hair gently. ‘You’ve been driving me crazy, you know that?’

Spencer glanced over to him and smiled slyly. ‘But crazy in a good way, right?’ He’d been trying to think of ways to get Morgan to notice him, when apparently he hadn’t had to. Morgan had noticed him anyway.

Morgan nodded. ‘Definitely in a good way.’ He turned and murmured in Spencer’s ear, ‘I’ll show you how good after dinner.’

Spencer swallowed. ‘We have to wait until after dinner?’

‘We’re going on a date, Reid.’

Spencer nodded. Wanting a date was what had started all this, so it seemed right that they should have at least one. ‘I can live with that.’


End file.
